#sept of the trillium glade

[songoftrillium]

Sept of the Trillium Glade (1975) Nestled in the depths of Dead Mountain's forest floor, this caern consists of a mossy log jam atop a creek's source beneath millenia of decomposing trees in the shadow of Dead Mountain. When you climb into the log jam, the decomposing trees shift and trap you in their grip. If the the forest accepts you she opens herself and shows you the way to ground. If she does not, you will remain entangled in the limbs of the fallen trees until you yourself are a part of the forest. Most of this Caern's gauntlet is incredibly thin, and if you bear her boon, she will let you quickly emerge from the ground at any part of her forest.

Level: 5 Type: Summer Country Tribal Structure: Red Talon (50/50 Winter Council/Garou Nation) Patron: Dume'fa Gauntlet: 1

Glyph Notes:'forest' + 'mountain' + 'trilliums' + 'caern'

Dume'fa (1975) The Yoncalla Kalapuya word for 'Mother'. Also known to the Red Talons as Grandmother Wolf, she was charged by Luna to help nurture and raise The First Pack. When Old Father Wolf came for the cubs to leave them in the wilds to fend for themselves, Dume'fa was sticken with grief, and fled both from the sight of Gaia and recorded garou history. She provided the safety and warmth the cubs needed for a garou to know that good things existed in the world worth fighting for. And to that end, she adamantly held open the gate to Summer Home even as the nunnehi closed the wild corners of rest of the region to all else, beckoning her wolves someday return home. Her territory is represented in the physical world by a patch of fungus spanning 6 square miles, making Dume'fa the largest living organism on earth.

Background Cost: 4 Traits: Once each year, the ageless and mourning Dume'fa will bless any non-human-born member of her pack a spiritual vision showing her insights of things in the past, present, and sometimes her belief in the future. These can manifest as dreams, the chosen pack members slipping sideways to come face to face with Dume'fa herself, or in the form of spirit messengers bringing messages to those outside of her reach. After the vision, if any pack member is holding a mushroom offered by dume'fa herself, , they can always communicate with each other. As an added bonus, the pack receives +2 Enigmas and +2 Investigation; the Dume'fa’s followers are good at finding information if they dig into the past. Ban: Dume'fa requires that her followers carry her voice for all wolves to hear and perform Rite of the Summer Wolf any time the hottest and driest day of the year over the Trillium Glade coincides with a westward blowing wind

Glyph Notes: 'patron' + 'pregnant' + 'wolf' + 'forest' + 'mountain' + 'death' + 'Summer Country' "Dume'fa, Patron Spirit of Dead Mountain, and Sept of the Trillium Glade. She is the howling grandmother, standing in between the physical world and Summer Country. Her howling swirls air spirits about her mountainous form, making the very rocks resonate at her peak. Every wolf that dies hears her call, beckoning them home."

[songoftrillium]

Esme "Leaping-Ghost" Journal Entry #34

Date: October 13, 1964 Location: Macredie Station

I woke up to a furious Julie this morning. She found a Red Talon tribal symbol at the Strauss Lumber Company ruins, almost left as though a calling card. Julie said she'll have words with the Red Talons, but I doubt they'll answer her call. I asked an engling to fetch a wolf from the Sept last night, but instead, a pack of dogs answered the summons.

The Elk Prairie Sentinels are all puzzled by this, and we are unable to communicate with the dogs. While we're waiting for a response from the Sept, I decided to explore the ruins myself. As a Theurge, I'm naturally curious about the magic that destroyed the sawmill. I couldn't identify whatever ritual had been used, but from what I could tell, the oak trees and underbrush seemed to have grown from beneath the asphalt and concrete, destroying the buildings and equipment from the inside-out. I even found a forklift impaled in the upper story of a 30-foot tall oak. It's as if the mountain is taking back what's hers.

Taylor is going to see if he can spin something about the ruins at the Dead Mountain Echo. I'm curious to see what kind of response we get from the town's inhabitants but the paper is eager to have a reporter with a history covering the civil rights movement in Trenton.

Anton met with the elder of the Kalapuyan tribe today and learned a little about the region. The tribe named Dead Mountain "Mother" because the mountain was here before their people came. When Anton asked the elder what the Kalapuyan word for "mother" was, the elder responded "Dume'fa." It's fascinating to think that a primordial spirit has a name that's synonymous with motherhood.

I'm excited this find!. There's so much I want to learn about Dume'fa, Dead Mountain, and the garou that call this place home. I hope the response from the Sept comes soon.

[songoftrillium]

Esme "Leaping-Ghost" Journal Entry #33

Anton, Julie, and I have checked in at a motel down on Hwy 712 by Macredie Station. Anton seems to really like the cherry pie at D's Diner, and Julie said she was going to head to the bawn and see if she could hail a Warder from the sept.

Trillium is a fascinating town. The gauntlet separating the real world from the Near Umbra is thinner here, even compared to other rural towns. I love the verdant life that seems to be everywhere in Trillium; Lichens on the sidewalks, Isothecium myosuroides growing on rooftops, and moss even seems to grow on the rubber seals on cars that go unwashed for too long.

I identified some ferns growing out of a stop sign as Polypodium glycyrrhiza, and there are old quercus garryana growing throughout the entire town. I stepped sideways and found that there were wyldlings everywhere around Trillium in the umbra, chewing on the Pattern Web. This must explain why the real world is so verdant here!

I am afraid I have already fallen in love with the woods, and cannot wait to find the Sept soon. I hope to find an Oak savannah in the wilderness. The idea of finding irises and orchids in the middle of the woods seems to much like something out of a fairy tale.

Addendum: I am so giddy with excitement about everything that I forgot to mention that Anton found a lead on a local source for information about Dume'fa. We are planning to meet with an elder of the Kalapuyan tribe tomorrow who has some information on her. I hope this information will be valuable to my research

[songoftrillium]

NPC Profile: "Red-Rain"

CW: Implied Violence. Red-Rain was once a human, but long ago shed his humanity to live amongst the Red Talons permanently as Gatekeeper. Positioning himself at the mouth of the Sept’s anchorhead, he has dedicated his life to blocking any attempts to open a moon bridge to the Sept. Earning his name from Sept of the Trillium Glade, his preferred method of killing is to impale people high in trees to slowly bleed out.

His eyes are hard and inexpressive, viewing the world in plain black and white. His Hair is long, black and straight as an arrow, coming halfway down his back, unkempt and beset by tangles and mats in spots. He hasn’t a hint of hair on his face. His body is tense and muscled in a manner of one accustomed to climbing. When he moves along the ground, he slinks, using the densely calloused knuckles of his hands to help him move along.

Red-Rain does not wear clothing, nor does he bear any tools. He was born amongst humans, but doesn’t talk about his past; only that he comes from the nearby Warm Springs. He crossed the bawn unassisted under cover of darkness and the spirits helped hide him from the garou of the sept. Breaking for their ranks, he headed straight for the heart, following the intense spiritual pull of the glade. He had heard this place was a doorway to the summer country, and that no human-born garou had ever laid eyes on it. 

He did it. He crossed the anchorhead and disappeared into the summer country. Weeks passed with garou coming and going, and with nobody knowing of Red-Rain’s pilgrimage, everyone in the sept would be shocked, enraged, and ready to fight the moment he stepped back out of it. It was when he’d returned that his eyes had grown so hard and feral. He’d not just seen the Summer Country, but its counterpart in The Earth Pit. He saw the horrors that awaited an opening to rush themselves through. He knew that nobody could open a moon bridge here anymore. 

Red-Rain fought through the ranks, one challenge at a time, until he came face to face with White-Oak, the sept’s alpha, and Sings-the-Past, the Warder, Master of the Challenge, and the sept’s Voice of the Dead. Sharing his visions, and being able to demonstrate the vision into The Earth Pit, Red-Rain stated matter-of-fact that he now protects the anchorhead, that no living thing may pass it. Challenges were issued, and he met them all, including killing the Sept’s gatekeeper at the time. 

[songoftrillium]

Burned Hide

Illustrated and Licensed from @morggo

Burned Hide is a very old wolf-born garou, well over 100 years old. Cursed with Longevity, she is a living direct descendant of Rala Bloodclaw, and the last surviving descendant of Tawatuy. She has reared and lost many families of wolves in her lifetime, and underwent her first change in trying to save her family from a forest fire.

A Galliard of the Hapil, she is Talesinger of Sept of the Trillium Glade, and Leader of Sept of Thaevarmet to the east. She'd be a legend in her own right, were it not for her tendency to speak her mind and rob herself of the renown, living up to Rala's fiery nature.

With burn scars covering over 75% of her body, she often struggles against the pain caused by these scars, but wears them with pride, advertising the love and dedication she holds for her wolf family. When in the Trillium Glade, she is constantly shaking her head for all the butterflies that like to land on her to drink the tears seeping from her blind eye.

[songoftrillium]

Coming Soon

Storyteller's Vault

Dark Fates Collide!

The garou of Sept of the Trillium Glade stand at a crossroads, their fate already written in the stars. The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest serve as a dark and brooding backdrop for their tragic story, one that showcases a specimen of intrigue lurking at the heart of the World of Darkness.

The first Act of Dead Mountain is high-powered chronicle written for Werewolf: the Apocalypse and is meant to be played in any edition of the game. This tragedy is written for 3 to 8 players of Rank 3 Adren, and is intended to have a long game duration of 6-9 months in length.

Set in 1975, this story revolves around the garou of four packs around Dead Mountain, set at an ancient Red Talon caern doomed to abscess to save itself. The players will need to navigate the complex web of long-standing alliances and animosities that exist among the different packs here. They must fight to protect their territory from incursions by their enemies, while also trying to uncover the secrets of their own history and make hard decisions that will have lasting impacts, preserving the things most important to each garou.

Senescence provides an opportunity to take all of your favorite legends, happenings, character experiences and edition history, and freeze it in time. This chronicle is the first of two acts That allow you to create your own mythology in the region that new players in Act 2 will unearth and piece together. Act 1 is the vehicle for giving closure to the characters that never saw an end to their chronicle, that one showdown you never got to play out, or found out what your favorite character's ultimate fate was to be. And in the grim ending of this first Act, all of those things you love the most will now become the legends that reveal themselves to the garou that come long after, bringing closure to the events that are to take place here.

This is a story of tragedy, one that will test the players' resolve and challenge their notions of what it means to be a garou. It is a tale of ancient secrets, hidden truths, and the grim and unforgiving landscape of the World of Darkness. The players will need to rely on their own wits and ingenuity to uncover the mysteries that lie ahead, and they will emerge from the story as better, more skilled storytellers in their own right!

Senescence Includes:

Over 120,000 words written spanning more than 130 pages to help you horrify your players!

Original Artwork by Mx. Morgan, Jordan Mitchell, and Canis Ovis!

House Rules and Garou History designed to address systemic issues, and streamline roleplay and combat!

New Storytelling Tools designed to bring inclusivity to your groups, as well as tell better horror stories!

The region of Gulaka'i over 30 new locations

Three new Garou camps, and three caerns complete with lore!

Over 24 new and multi-faceted NPCs!

9-part Chronicle with Story Seeds to tailor the story to your players!

Full-color Region and Protectorate maps

First Tongue: The ancient proto-language of the garou!

5 New Talismans!

More Hearthbound story seeds!

3 New Pack Patrons!

5 New Rites!

13 New Enemies!

@excelgarou's Build-a-Veteran v1.2!

RPG Consent Checklist: WoD Edition!

Cross-Edition Conversions!

And More!

Follow us for more reveals as we get closer to Halloween!

Join our discord to help make this game!

[songoftrillium]

What is the Song of Trillium?

The name is a translation from the Garou epic Tril’LumKet’Awen’thro. Written entirely in the Garou's First Tongue language, this is a series of wolf kennings that predate the Concords, telling the story of a pack of wolf-born Garou and their exploits in Gulaka'i, a primordial physical bridge between the Summer Country, Pangaea, and the Gaian Realm.

First Tongue is a dead language, known by only a handful of Garou, mostly Galliards and Theurges from Older Brother and a few Red Talons. The story and the mostly forgotten language only recently became known to the Garou Nation and cannot be simplified for effective translation into any known modern language.

Utilizing Triatic Gendering, First Tongue is a language created by wolves and for wolves. Communication seldom expresses emotion in words but how they are presented. Identified as emotional genderings that charge the language in ways that reflect a Garou's affinity with Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm to create emotional nuance.

When translated, this epic's elements resonate with many of the cultural eccentricities inherent in the Dawn Tribes and seem to stem from many of the words inherent to the Garou and Fera languages. The persistence of this legend, along with the existence of Sept of the Trillium Glade by the Garou Nation in the mid-century, presents a piece of still-living history. Being a revelation of lore and spirits previously unknown to the Garou, it has inspired many Galliards to seek out additional pieces of this vast tale.

Through the efforts of the Temple of the Fanum in Chicago, a rough translation, if to be believed, is a vicious, bloody epic that showcases the trials and tribulations of Tawatuy, a pack of wolf-born garou that came to Gulaka'i to pay chiminage to a Nameless spirit. Thus far, nine parts have been translated into writable language but are believed to form the core of the epic, where all yet-to-be-translated elements stem from individual tales, songs, and parables about each member of Tawatuy.

The tale follows them into the wilds of a verdant and primordial forest, where an ancient evil seems to catch them unawares at every effort, leading to many, many dead Garou. At the end of this epic, the very spirit that the heroes came to pay chiminage to ends up sacrificing her omniscience to save the remaining wolves. Losing control over this vast piece of land, the Garou swear an oath to protect the anchorhead here, forming the first Sept with the packs of Garou they befriend along the way and working together to seal this ancient evil away.

Burned-Hide, Galliard Athro Hapil, is the last living descendant of Rala Blood-Claw, the sole surviving Garou of Tawatuy that persists through to today.

[songoftrillium]

NPC Spotlight: Julie "Bites-the-Bully" Lykos

Human-Born Philodox Black Fury Elder, 41, Zedakh, Elk Prairie Sentinels

CW: Blood. Julie appears in 1975 as a well-built woman in her early 40s, 5'10", 193lbs, with a split brow, wiry, curly hair, and expressive, sage-colored eyes. Her face is deeply pockmarked with old scars that extend to cover most of her upper torso around her shoulders and cheeks in particular, making her facial features particularly pronounced in their expressiveness and her utter inability to hide what she's feeling. Her eyes tend to disappear behind a big lopsided smile when you can trick her into grinning. She often is seen wearing levis, bowling shirt or tank top, and one of her dad's WWII flight jackets.

She is most often seen in public working at Aloha Lanes at nights on the weekends, where she can make space for marginalized groups of weird kids like herself to socialize in safety on weekend nights while keeping up an appearance of being a part of the rural community of Trillium. Among garou she makes space for her own packmates and advocates strongly on behalf to ensure their voices are heard, whether from the traditional garou at the sept of the swift waters, to the traditional garou at sept of the trillium glade. She lives in a mobile home, in Steelhead springs with Dr. Esme "Leaping-Ghost" Marshall, Human-Born Theurge Child of Gaia Athro.

From a very young age, Julie was on the road traveling with her military family, but when the second world war broke out, she moved to Seattle to live with her aunt. Julie was always what her dad liked to call a "bent nail", a comment that had him fretting for her well-being. This reality followed Julie through her younger years. Generally speaking, the bent-nail got pounded. Most places Julie went, she never had much of a chance to get an impression long enough to get attached to anywhere, and nowhere did she ever truly belong. By the time she was in public school in seattle where all the kids already knew each other, Julie seldom went a week without coming home to her aunt's arms in tears. Unable to find other recourses, she spent a good portion of her teen years working malt shops, diners, whatever service industry job you could imagine, that's what Julie did. She was determined to go to college, get her degree, and move far away. She always dreamed of seeing alaska's wilderness like she read in her paperback novels, and felt like Seattle was always just beyond the reach of the world's wildest places.

When Julie hit puberty, the war ended, but not before it claimed both of her parents. In school, differences between her and the other girls only worsened. Her jawline hardened, and she started putting on muscle at the drop of a hat. She grew taller than most the girls at her school, and the worst of the bullying she faced was from other women. In short, Julie's self esteem was gone, and she was deeply depressed. When the bullying reached a head, Julie wound up having a breakdown at her school. Her aunt, ever-attentive, pulled her out of school and let her finish her education through homeschooling. In reality, she just let her ward have space and autonomy. Julie found an escape in reading. She especially loved Ursula K. Le Guin, and Leigh Brackett . By all measures, Julie should be the one with the strength to defend against everyone at the school, and none of the desire to do so.

But also, Julie had a plan. All those years she worked sweating in the service industry gave her what one would've needed back then to completely pay for her college, and rent a little studio apartment to herself. And Julie believed that at last she could put her childhood behind herself. Things went well for the first year, new class settling into their year at the school, she felt like she was finally able to let go of some of that bottled up anger, and then, on a hot, dry summer evening, she had her first change in the middle of the food hall at Evergreen college. And what it was wasn't some kind of new bully against her, no, it was seeing someone dump their drink on the head of another student, and before she knew it she was in the woods, panicked and her front covered in blood. Her aunt and a few members of the faculty were there, all kinfolk.

She is best known among the garou for fighting for The Fanum during the War of Chicago. In the aftermath of that conflict, Julie befriended Colleen "Shamisa" Fetner. Working with the Sept, the war started bloody, but ended with an uneasy peace between The Fanum and Sept of the Wind Catchers. Each working in tandem through Julie's efforts to unify them had The Fanum assaulted the Camarilla and sabbat simultaneously.At the end of the war, many garou died, including Julie's own pack mates, but every last known vampire in the city of Chicago were completely obliterated.

When Shamisa answered a calling to mentor a late changed garou in Seattle, she and Julie traveled there together. Julie lives in a trailer at Steelhead Springs just outside of Trillium with Esme. Opossum, a patron spirit of adaptability, has formed a strong bond with this Black Fury, and has followed her from her first pack to the Sentinels, which she now leads. Her stubbornness for her pack to be heard by the Red Talon Sept is what eventually led to Sept of the Trillium Glade opening itself to the rest of the garou nation, and among her pack and other Black Furies, Julie is respected for both her discipline and emotional intelligence, despite being very plain-worded.

Time spent living with Esme has drawn the two of them closer, though Julie hasn't been able to find the right words to open her heart.

Reason Level 5, Gnosis 7

Description: Reason appears to be a partially broken labrys that's had one of it's blades shattered off. It's undergone a refurbishment with a new, short throwing axe handle, affixed on the other side with what looks like workshop hand tooling to clamp the ornate head to a utilitarian wood handle. On the handle is a sloppily woodburned word that can be barely read for the grime of use as 'Reason'. The spirit of a Freebooter named Iona "Kinslayer" is bound into this axe.

System: The signature Labrys of Bites-the-Bully, constructed during the War of Chicago in collaboration between the Sept of Jupiter and Sept of the Wind Catchers out of Julie's Mentor's Labrys when she and her Labrys were destroyed while defending the anchorhead. Attacks with Reason are difficulty 7 and to Strength + 3 aggravated damage. Activating this Fetish causes it to dramatically lighten in weight, enabling it to be thrown by anyone with a Strength of 4. Reason may be caught on it's return arc with a successful Dexterity + Athletics difficulty 7.

"I'm sure they'll listen to Reason"

[songoftrillium]

An Editions-Agnostic Chronicle for Werewolf: the Apocalypse

Coming in Fall 2023

This chronicle introduces a lot of original content, including:

Over 20 new locations Over 20 new and multi-faceted NPCs A full timeline of events happening in multiple locations New House Rules New Fetishes New Patron New Rites! New Enemies! New Storytelling Tools designed to bring inclusivity to your groups, as well as tell better horror stories.

Act 1: Senescence

Dark Fates Collide! Garou of Sept of the Trillium Glade stand at a crossroads, their fate already written in the stars. The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest serve as a dark and brooding backdrop for their tragic story, one that showcases a specimen of intrigue lurking at the heart of the World of Darkness.

The first Act of Dead Mountain is high-powered chronicle written for Werewolf: the Apocalypse and is meant to be played in any edition of the game. This chronicle is for 3-8 players of Rank 3 Adren, and is intended to have a long play time of 6-9 months in length.

Set in 1975, this story revolves around the garou of four packs at Sept of the Trillium Glade, a primarily Red Talon caern that is doomed to abscess. The players must also navigate the complex web of alliances and animosities that exist among the different packs here. They must fight to protect their territory from incursions by their enemies, while also trying to uncover the secrets of their own history.

They will be tasked with navigating the treacherous and unpredictable terrain of the temperate rainforests framing the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Trillium. As the players journey through this harsh and unforgiving land, they will encounter a strange and ancient patron spirit, Dume'fa, who has been a hidden part of garou history since the time of The First Pack. Her power is great and mysterious, and the garou of the sept who venerate her are as elusive as the primordial forest spirit herself. The xenophobic Red Talons of the sept are among her most devoted followers, and they will stop at nothing to ensure that Dume'fa's will is done, for better and for worse.

The players will encounter a myriad of challenges as they make their way through the dense forests and rocky cliffs of the cascade range. But perhaps the greatest challenge they will face is the looming shadow of their own fate. With every step they take, they will come closer to absolution. The players must confront the inevitability of their own destruction and choose how they will meet their end. Will they fight with all their strength, determined to make the most of their time left? Or will they succumb to despair and allow themselves to be consumed by the darkness?

This Act provides an opportunity to take all of your favorite legends, happenings, character experiences and edition history, and freezes it in time. The tragedy of Act 1 creates a mythology in the region that new players in Act 2 will unearth and piece together. Act 1 is the vehicle for giving closure to the characters that never saw an end to their chronicle, that one showdown you never got to play out, or found out what your favorite character's ultimate fate was to be. And in the grim ending of this first Act, all of those things you love the most will now become the legends that reveal themselves to the garou that come long after, and finally bring closure to the events that are to take place.

Dead Mountain's first act is a story of tragedy, one that will test the players' resolve and challenge their notions of what it means to be a garou. It is a tale of ancient secrets, hidden truths, and the grim and unforgiving landscape of the World of Darkness. The players will need to rely on their own wits and ingenuity to uncover the mysteries that lie ahead, and they will emerge from the story as better, more skilled storytellers in their own right.

Stay Tuned for a specific publish date, content previews, and more! As I develop this chronicle, I'll be offering peeks into the upcoming content you can come to expect in this indy Chronicle.

Act 2, set many years since the events of Act 1, is intended for players new to Werewolf: the Apocalypse 5th Edition, and the World of Darkness on the whole.

[songoftrillium]

Pack Profile: Elk Prairie Sentinels

The Elk Prairie Sentinels are a pack of garou from around the world, consisting of 7 members. First formed in 1963, they resisted old growth lumber harvesting by enabling activist groups around the Seattle area, and helping these groups engage in tree spiking to dissuade loggers. Providing a platform for marginalized voices, enabling the ideals of activism, this pack combats The Wyrm through enabling and arming the world of mortals and garou alike to better defend themselves. Brought to Trillium through a gross violation of The Veil committed by the Sept, upholding the litany and reinforcing a sacred peace on Dead Mountain has resulted in the pack suffering a breakup of its members into two groups, one half of which is still in Trillium, and the other half of which is either traveling abroad or back in Seattle. It's members consist of:

Julie "Bites-the-Bully" Sept Role: Athro Breed: Human-Born Auspice: Philodox Tribe: Black Furies Julie is the pack's alpha. She first and foremost seeks to platform her own packmates to be heard and followed by other garou, preferring to work in the background herself. Despite her strong sense of morality and ethics, she flusters in the spotlight, and uses her own pack to motivate herself into assertiveness. Julie's role in the Sentinels is one that started as a partnership but has evolved into one where the pack depends on her to act as an ambassador to the Sept of the Trillium Glade. She is best known among the garou for fighting for The Fanum during the War of Chicago. In the aftermath of that conflict, Julie befriended Colleen "Shamisa" Fetner. Working with the Sept, the war started bloody, but ended with an uneasy peace between The Fanum and Sept of the Wind Catchers. Each working in tandem through Julie's efforts to unify them had The Fanum assaulted the Camarilla and sabbat simultaneously. At the end of the war, many garou died, including Julie's own pack mates, but every last known vampire in the city of Chicago were completely obliterated. When Shamisa answered a calling to mentor a late changed garou in Seattle, she and Julie traveled there together. Julie lives in a trailer at Steelhead Springs just outside of Trillium with her partner, Esme. Opossum, a patron spirit of adaptability, has formed a strong bond with this Black Fury, and has followed her from her first pack to the Sentinels, which she now leads. Her stubbornness for her pack to be heard by the Red Talon Sept is what eventually led to Sept of the Trillium Glade opening itself to the rest of the garou nation, and among her pack and other Black Furies, Julie is respected for both her discipline and emotional intelligence, despite being very plain-worded.

Dr. Esme "Leaping-Ghost" Sept Role, Athro, Keeper of the Land (Sept of the Trillium Glade) Breed: Human-Born Tribe: Children of Gaia Auspice: Theurge Esme was Shamisa's apprentice. Going through her change in her 20s, Esme took to being a garou poorly. To help with this change, Shamisa and Julie came in from Chicago. Shamisa was happy to teach Esme in the ways of the garou, and Julie used her connections with the septs in Chicago to put Esme in contact with a network of garou and kinfolk scientists to continue her research. This connection strongly motivated Esme to embrace her role as garou. Esme is the one of two members of the Elk Prairie Sentinels that perform a role at Sept of the Trillium Glade, and through interacting with her son, the pack is now able to communicate on a more-or-less direct basis with the rest of the Sept members of the region. Ever since the pack split, and following her experiences living in the woods, she now struggles to reintegrate with human society, and currently resides with Julie at Steelhead Springs. Blaming herself for the breakup of the pack and years spent living as a wolf in the woods, Esme now struggles with Harano and finding a sense of belonging, although with a rite performed by Sunshine, she is stable.

Prof. Anton "rutgers65" Sept Role: Athro, Random Interrupts Breed: Human-Born Auspice: Theurge Tribe: Glass Walkers Anton once held rank as Elder at a Glass Walker Sept in New Jersey and was a tenured professor of Electrical Engineering at Rutgers University. Garou history doesn't accurately reflect Anton, who went uncredited for his work in connecting the tribe to Arpanet through his university, and for research contributing to the invention of the Umbral CB. Where many garou pair with kinfolk, Anton fell in love with a gay, black, human journalist named Taylor Altman, something he kept secret for a time by burying his own wolf nature deep inside, and hiding his own wolf nature from his partner. When the knowledge of Anton's relationship became known amongst the Glass Walkers, it was the tales of mockery and denigration, along with being stripped of rank, that became the things he is now best known for. This kicked off a campaign against him by glass walker kinfolk in the region that resulted in him losing his tenure at Rutgers University. Fearing for Taylor's safety, Anton temporarily went into hiding. Through that fallout, Taylor came to learn of the garou, and comprehending the importance of their secrecy, became an ally to the garou, dedicated to upholding the veil, and to his partner. News of this event reached Julie, whom immediately beckoned Anton to join her cause. Looking for a life free of prejudice, Anton and Taylor moved out west, to Seattle, and he used his extensive knowledge to arm activists with information. In the town of Trillium he continues his life, regularly keeping his wolf nature hidden. He works by having deeply integrating himself into the town's society, and it's nightlife, he and his partner remain at the forefront of becoming aware of potential veil violations hitting the town, and learning of any leeches that come through the roadhouse bar. The two of them life together in their own trailer in Steelhead Springs. Reciting any such derogatory Galliard songs about Anton is an immediate way to start a fight with Julie.

Miriam "WKA9Y" Sept Role: Athro, Random Interrupts Breed: Human-Born Auspice:Theurge Tribe: Glass Walkers Miriam was born in Podlasie just a few years before the invasion of Russia and Germany. Her entire family destroyed at-once, she fled the region on foot carrying her father's radio. Mae learned early on to be portable and always keep in touch and learning to operate a radio, and these early formative years became her core personality. Having a vocal disinterest in discussions that happen outside of the sphere of long distance communications, she even went as far as revoking romantic relationships entirely in lieu of these efforts, of which the random interrupts are now all-too happy to enable. After her first change, she joined the Glass Walkers, where her skills with the radio were paired with that of rutgers65 at Rutgers, both assisting in connecting to Arpanet and in developing the Umbral CB. Although receiving sole credit for these inventions, this usurping against the professor evoked a disgust in her and inspired her to travel with Anton and Taylor out west and joined the Sentinels in their work to arm human society against the rising oppression of The Wyrm. She remains in Seattle researching what she calls "A rising trend in coincidences pointing towards a hitherto-unnamed concerted corporate effort to harm gaia". Still shaken by memories of home, she is reluctant to remain in any forested region for particularly long, preferring the comforts of the city. This, perhaps, is why she decided to leave Trillium and return to Seattle, where she currently resides, helping the pack from afar. She is currently working with Anton over Arpanet experimenting with storage of gnosis on electronics out of an intent to prototype a framework for an all-digital Sept.

Seb "Udaya-Akekaten" Sept Role: Adren , Harbinger (Sept of the Tri-Spiral) Breed: Human-born Auspice: Galliard Tribe: Silent Striders One raised in a family of Silent Strider kinfolk, Seb was no stranger to the spirits, and from an early age was one to receive visitations and visits. Volunteering his time at the British Royal Museum, he worked as a storyteller, reciting old Sanskrit poems and stories. Shortly after his First Change, Seb began having harrowing visions of an apocalypse befalling all garou. Seeing many atrocities committed, all under the light of a red sun. His name means 'follows the red sun', he is a member of the Harbingers camp, traveling to region to region as he is struck with visions of a red sun shining over widespread destruction. When his visions brought him to Sept of the Tri-Spiral near Drogheda, Caeli found herself moved by his mission and volunteered to help. Or at least, keep Seb's spirits up. His latest visions have brought him to the Pacific Northwest with visions of entire forests withered and ablaze, burning wolf and man alike. The young garou of the Elk Prairie Sentinels were the ones who volunteered to carry Seb's warning with him to Trillium. He is now traveling the world with Caeli traveling between septs and attempting to unite the tribes against this impending slow moving death.

Caeli "Rages-in-the-Dark Sept Role: Fostern Breed: Human-born Auspice: Ragabash Tribe: Bone Gnawers Raised in the UK, Caeli escaped a home with an alcoholic and abusive mother kinfolk, narrowly avoiding an induction into the Black Spiral Dancers. Having difficulties forming lasting friendships, Caeli took to street life comfortably. Circumstances brought her and Seb together when he came to Sept of the Tri-Spiral, where Caeli was mentoring under the Fianna and learning White Howler history. Learning of Seb's visions of Anthelios was sobering to the Bone Gnawer, who volunteered to travel with him and share his vision of the future, out of hopes of perhaps preventing another tribe from falling. Caeli has brought a deep anger with her into the garou nation, and expresses it through actions against scumbags that attack the bottom rung of humanity. She supported the pack as best she could in Trillium, but the small town life lead her back to Sept of the Swift Waters.

Marie "Culls-the-Tainted", Adren Human-Born Black Fury Ahroun, 28 (Player Character) hails from Lafayette, Louisiana. She is often seen around Aloha Lanes with Julie. Where she works the front counter, Julie maintains the pin-setting machines in the back. Unusually tall even as a child, as an adult she has to bend over in every doorway, standing at 7 feet tall. This made her an easy target in school, something she often responded to with direct confrontation. She experienced her first change when she and a group of her friends was attacked by a pack of fomori dogs. Her friends survived and the fomori dogs didn't, but what also died that day was her friendships and that old life. Shortly after she became fostern, her pack, which mostly consisted of Stargazers, disbanded when the Stargazers left the nation, and her packmates followed them to parts unknown, leaving her once again isolated. Taking a sabbatical with the Black Furies, she turned her focused inwards, trying to gain insights on what she wanted for herself. When news of the existence of Sept of the Trillium Glade, and by extension Dume'fa, reached the furies, Marie and her husband were sent to Trillium as a bit of a diplomatic overture from the rest of her tribe to work with Julie as an effort to introduce more humans to the sept. Upon arrival, she found an immediate kinship with Julie, and joined the Elk Prairie Sentinels pack. Having just gained the rank of Adren, Marie is now poised to serve as the Den Mother for any cubs in the sept, setting a new precedent, and high expectations, among it's Red Talon leadership. Her relationship with most of the garou in the sept can be described as distant at best and somewhat hostile at worst, but is the most qualified to train human cubs. She has a better relationship with the Ephemeral Mists than others in the sept, but things are still a little awkward.

[songoftrillium]

❄️ if you're still taking these? :3

I am still taking these! Here is an excerpt from Esme Leaping-Ghost's journals. She is an ethnobotanist that managed to forge the unsteady peace that exist between Sept of the Trillium Glade and the rest of the Garou Nation, and a large portion of this book is written with her narrative voice. Here's her first impressions when arriving in Seattle:

From the Personal Journals of Esme Leaping-Ghost

Date: October 5, 1964 Location: 3:00 AM PST. Sept of the Swift Waters, Snoqualamie, WA Conditions: 43F, overcast, windy. New moon

We arrived and are staying at Julie’s aunt’s; we’re all spread throughout her bungalow like a hostel at the moment. Julie says it’s a dry fall, but that it comes and goes every couple years of warm and cool winters. All the same, I can still see moss growing out of every shaded seam exposed to rainfall here. Stacie is way friendlier than Julie makes her out to be, but I can see her friendliness getting overwhelming quick. Stacie’s library is a converted bedroom, stacked floor to ceiling with books, all written by women from all walks of life covering a range of topics from farming manuals to pulp romance novels. Naturally, I had to sleep here.  Julie insisted on sleeping on the couch. In her own home! I don’t understand the hospitality, but I think it’s more a Pacific Northwest thing. Despite the size, She’s both rather timid and disarmingly bold, and I can’t quite pin her down. I don’t think I’ll ever get a more candid window into her mind than I am seeing now. I imagine her hiding away here, nose buried in…”Katherine V. Forrest”? I don’t think I’ve heard of her. Then again, I wouldn’t have taken her to be a reader anyways. That’s meaner than I meant it to sound. She just always seemed so rough-and-tumble to be patient enough to read. The mind wanders, fantastrophizing what hidden worlds can be found in her imagination all the same.  Reflecting on the failure of the opened moon bridge, I admit I’m a little relieved to be driving to Trillium. I get queasy on the moonbridges; worse than flying. For all its show and immediacy, it’s so hard to get a feel for a place by being “dropped in”, anyways. Stepping outside, fir needles the color of pennies rained on me in a cold breeze. Entering the Pacific Northwest feels like breathing air for the first time. I was expecting muggy warm humidity, the air is cold and somehow crisp, like the things that make the air feel so heavy elsewhere are weighed down by last night’s rain here. I smell fungus growing nearby. Stacie insisted on making us an early morning breakfast and is loaning us her van for the trek. Rutgers and Taylor said they packed something for them to eat on the road, and the rest of us had biscuits and gravy, and lots of coffee. There’s still not enough room for all of us, so Seb and Caeli will be driving behind us in Julie’s Pinto. That's just as well, despite Julie's assurances, Caeli is absolutely insufferable.

Feel free to ask me more questions!

[songoftrillium]

NEW PATRON: Dume'fa

Art Credit: @ionomycin

The First Tongue word for 'Mother of Mothers', 'Mother Wolf' to the Red Talons, 'Grandmother Wolf' to the Furies, and The Summer Wolf in legend, she is the patron of Dead Mountain, and Sept of the Trillium Glade. When Old Father Wolf came for the cubs to leave them in the wilds to fend for themselves, Dume'fa was sticken with grief, and fled both from the sight of Gaia and recorded garou history. She provided the safety and warmth the cubs needed for a garou to know that good things existed in the world worth fighting for. And to that end, she adamantly held open the gate to Summer Home even as the nunnehi closed the wild corners of rest of the region to all else, beckoning her wolves someday return home. Background Cost: 4 Traits: Once each year, the ageless and mourning Dume'fa will bless any non-human-born member of her pack a spiritual vision showing her insights of things in the past, present, and sometimes her belief in the future. These can manifest as dreams, the chosen pack members slipping sideways to come face to face with Dume'fa herself, or in the form of spirit messengers bringing messages to those outside of her reach. After the vision, if any pack member is holding a mushroom offered by dume'fa herself, , they can always communicate with each other. As an added bonus, the pack receives +2 Enigmas and +2 Investigation; Dume'fa’s followers are good at finding information if they dig into the past. Ban: Dume'fa requires that her followers carry her voice for all wolves to hear and perform Rite of the Summer Wolf any time the hottest and driest day of the year over the Trillium Glade coincides with a westward blowing wind.

[songoftrillium]

Abscession

Back in the early 2000s I was a college student engrossed in urban exploration and film photography. It became my major, and to call it an obsession would be an understatement

I easily spent more time in abandoned and forgotten places that I did on campus, and I came to develop an appreciation for seeing indicators of nature moving back in to these abandoned places

One of my good friends at the time and I were both avid fans of World of Darkness; Werewolf in particular being a common subject of speculation as we explored these crumbling places, and I found myself often inspired.

I always wondered what it would be like to wander into a caern in such a state. Some place that used to be some grand and ancient site revered by some higher power. While such places do exist, they don't exist for entertainment but to tell the tale of past tragedies that took place there, and I don't want to make entertainment of genuine tragedy.

To step into these spaces after having been abandoned its easy to find evidence of past habitation even more apparent now than when it was first abandoned. Even the fingerprints others left are now visible for the mold that eventually intervenes on time's behalf, you find yourself minding your steps, and even the ceiling itself wants to close in on you and make you a feature on the landscape.

My aim with Dead Mountain is to tell a tale through the lens of abandoned spaces, only in this time, the thing that's been abandoned is a caern.

The mental image is of a group of lost cubs, maybe even still pre-change, being drawn to this place of power through seeing signs in the landscape. Maybe weird visions in dreams, a location that is referenced but never named, made prevalent purely through it's absence in-record.

Imagine discovering a garou fetish at the bottom of a creek and a session is learning how to use it? What if there's still a survivor or two from this old caern, living a life wrapped in harano or hiding one's wolf nature somewhere in town?

Or worse, imagine discovering that the site has become hostile to garou since then, the spirits of the deceased garou are stricken mad with rage, or perhaps the survivors have themselves become corrupt? Or even more exciting, what if one of those lost cubs was the child of the person responsible for bringing down the caern in the first place?

These questions arisen during my urbex years are what's sitting at the heart of Act II of Dead Mountain. The Sept of the Trillium Glade has sat absessing wyld energy while simultaneously being tainted by radioactive runoff. The patron has retreated with the heart into the deep umbra, but beneath the site a spiritual timebomb is waiting to go off if the players can't learn to harness their powers, uncover the secrets of the fallen sept, and heal the past. Such a trial will require them to learn history, travel the region, investigate for clues, survive the environment, evade danger, face down their past, control their will, and learn to harness their willpower. Add in a disenchanted garou pariah or two to teach gifts and the basics well enough for the party to realize the pariahs are themselves fallen, and you have the making for a riveting chronicle. Act I is all about building out the world and making it real before bringing it all crashing down in spectacular fashion. Cannot have your abandoned caern without a caern to fall, after all. And to that end, Act I must not only have remarkably deep enough characters to leave a mark on the land, but also have a failure so thoroughly comprehensive, that nothing the players do to stop abscession will succeed. Act I will easily be the hardest part and require the most work.

[songoftrillium]

Creature Artist Spotlight: @ionomycin

ionomycin is an llustrator currently based in Germany, with a Bachelor's Degree in Media & Arts, specializing in Interactive Media.

Her focus in art is in colours and visual storytelling, making her the ideal candidate to design the patron of Sept of the Trillium Glade: Dume'fa.

Video games, especially smaller studio indie games, are a big passion of hers and is apparent in her body of work.

Such a spirit as Dume'fa is one that is intricate in composition, and this artist was our first choice to do her materialization justice.

[songoftrillium]

These are the protectorates of Sept of the Trillium Glade. The hard lines are demarcated by the rivers of the region, as well as the presence of oak trees.

[songoftrillium]

A Thunderwyrm Approaches

In Session 6, an elder garou has died in the service of Gaia at Sept of the Trillium Glade. Painted-Hills, the only temper on the Hammer Butte Hunters, was killed in the Newberry Caldera while witnessing a fellow wolf-born garou complete his Rite of Passage. When the players heard this audio, they all grew to move towards this source, confused that it would suddenly die down. When a thunderwyrm hatchling surfaced, they were surprised at how small it was, and the cub, aided by their berserk frenzied den mother Culls-the-Tainted, took it down with ease. Little did the gathered garou know, this hatchling was merely trying to outrun a much, much larger one. Bird Audio: CC-BY mchekic "milancekic"